Gelzinis: The reasons why I’m with Hillary Clinton

Credit: AP photo

To be a trailblazer is often a thankless endeavor. Hillary Rodham Clinton is living proof.

For nearly a half-century, she has been upending the status quo on both the feminist and political fronts, earning almost as much scorn as praise in the process.

Those who despise Clinton give you the reflex “can’t trust her.” Probe deeper and what you hear is a variation on “the woman is too damn smart for her own good.”

I voted for Hillary Clinton precisely because she is too damn smart, not to mention too damn sane.

As far as I’m concerned, to have done anything else in this election would have been irresponsible.

Back in June of 1969, Sen. Ed Brooke was the featured speaker at the Wellesley commencement. No one remembers what he said because his remarks were completely overshadowed by the dynamic valedictory delivered by a senior who captured the attention of the national press.

Hillary Rodham would go on to Yale Law School, then journey to the poorest sections of the South to work at expanding services and educational opportunities for children.

Eventually, she would serve on the Watergate committee with Bill Weld before marrying Bill Clinton, the audacious fellow law student who was smart enough to know that what he was pursuing would indeed become his better half.

As first lady of Arkansas, she infuriated the locals by choosing not to take her husband’s name until she was ready.

The rest, as they say, is history. As first lady, Hillary would incur the wrath of a Congress that was not ready to consider her pioneer efforts at health care reform. Still, she persevered to win health insurance for millions of children.

In the face of her husband’s infidelities and indiscretions in the White House, she summoned the strength to keep her marriage and family together.

Before Bill Clinton left the White House, Hillary once again charted her own course, winning a Senate seat from New York, along with the respect of her colleagues.

After waging a grueling presidential campaign against her eight years ago, Barack Obama asked Hillary Clinton to become his secretary of state. That was no accident. What Obama knew he needed was her savvy and her steel.

Of all the charges levied at her over the past year, the most ridiculous has to be that Hillary Clinton has no stamina.

Is that why the Russians have been supplying Wiki­Leaks with a river of hacked emails? Is it because Vladimir Putin thinks that Hillary Clinton has no stamina?

Or is it because he already knows Hillary Clinton has way too much stamina … a helluva lot more than the guy with the orange hair.

There has never been a real argument about who the most qualified, the most serious candidate is in this election.

And yet a woman who has demonstrated the grit and grace, brains and brawn to be president finds herself at a moment when irrationality has become a virus, when people are bitter enough to touch the third rail. Still, I’m confident reason will prevail.